


False Flags

by greekowl87



Series: @txf-prompt-box Tumblr [1]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Civil War AU, F/M, Tumblr, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 01:46:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12048756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greekowl87/pseuds/greekowl87
Summary: I wrote this super quick the other day for the Civil War AU prompt from @txf-prompt-box over on Tumblr the other day. It did not end up as I originally intended but hopefully it turned out okay.





	False Flags

The wine was flowing freely despite it being the midst of the War of Northern Aggression. Lieutenant Fox Mulder sat quietly, swishing the sherry in his glass quietly as his aged captain, Captain Franklin Buchanan, laughed deeply, swinging his navy saber in some swashbuckling story as the rest of his officers laughed. Everyone but him and his wife, an enigmatic red head with startling blue eyes.

Lieutenant Mulder was not used to keeping company with navy men. He himself was a marine of the Confederate States Marine Core stationed aboard the newest frigate, an ironside ship, the CSS Virginia, previously the USS Merrimac. He had found himself in this position because of the well-established connections of his mother and her North Carolina family, he found himself assigned to the CSMC right after Virginia decided to succeed from the Union. Previously he had been a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and an officer in the United States Army. He had hoped to remain a soldier and stationed somewhere ashore, but now he was a marine, stationed on some new fantastical iron clad, and knew nothing about it.

He felt uncomfortable among the navy men. Aside from the captain’s wife, she was the only lady present, he probably was the only one out of place. “Lieutenant Mulder,” the old captain bellowed, “you look happier than a sailor who just found out his wife left him!”

Mulder frowned in confusion. “Sir?”

“You look like hell, son!” the captain guffawed.  The rest of his officers chuckled as well.

Mulder looked into his glass of sherry quizzically and downed the rest of it. “Do you mind if I step out, sir? I feel like the fresh air might do me some good.”

“Damn it, Mulder! It is the middle of February and my wife’s birthday, pay her some respect,” he drunkenly bellowed.

His wife, Mrs. Buchanan, rose quickly and placed a calming hand on her husband’s arm. “Franklin, it truly is no trouble. Let me show him the study and you and your officers can have some time amongst yourselves. Wouldn’t that be lovely?”

The old captain smiled and kissed her hand affectionately. “What would I do without you, my angel, my Dana? It is your birthday after all.”

Mulder raised an eyebrow and met the wife’s even stare. She smiled slightly and nodded for him to join her as she left the table. Mulder quietly followed her out of the dining room and up the stairs to the study. As he joined her in the study, she shut the door soundly and locked it. “Dear God,” she cried, heaving a sigh. “I thought I would never be free of them. Lieutenant Mulder, was it?”

“Lieutenant Fox Mulder at your service, ma'am.” He bowed slightly and kissed her hand respectively. “And Mrs. Buchanan, correct?”

“Dana,” she laughed, waving a hand. “I don’t know who rescued who, Fox.”

“Mulder,” he corrected softly. “I never really liked my first name. At the Institue, they always made fun of me. Sly Fox. I detested it.”

“Institue?” she raised an elegant eyebrow. “Weren’t you a Navy man before the war?”

“Army actually,” he admitted weakly. “I graduated from VMI, worked in intelligence with the army, and found myself in the marines, no thanks to my mother’s connections with the secretary of the navy. I hoped to remain in the army though. My mother’s from North Carolina. I was born in Martha’s Vineyard but my father died shortly after the birth of my sister Samantha and then my mother moved us out of, and I use her words, ‘the godforsaken north,’ back to her family’s plantation in North Carolina. I know nothing about the marines or the navy.”

“Army,” she repeated, “well, I’ll take credit for our rescue then. Shall we toast our brave escape?”

Mulder shifted uneasily from boot to boot. “I don’t know if that is wise, Mrs. Buchanan.”

“Dana,” she corrected sharply, smiling toothily at him. “Nonsense, it is my birthday and I declare we need a toast.” She went to a side table and poured them two glasses liberally full of whiskey. “This is my husband’s best whiskey. Only the best for us.”

She passed him the glass and held it out for a toast. Mulder raised it half heartedly. “To your birthday?”

“And our escape from those dreadful navy men,” she declared chinking the glasses. They downed the whiskey quickly and Mulder looked at the empty glass thoughtfully. “Another round, Mulder?”

“Yes, ma'am.” She looked sharply at him. With a sigh, he amended, “Dana.”

She freshened their glasses and she led him the couches in the corner of the study next to the roaring fireplace. Mulder sat stiffly down as she sat across from him, smiling. “So, Mr. Lieutenant Fox Mulder of the marines, are you excited to be attached to the newest frigate of the navy, the great CSS Virginia?”

“I get sea sick,” he admitted ruefully once he realized her sarcasm.

She bit back a laugh. “Well, I wish I could say the same. I feel like I should as much I’ve been around the navy all my life.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, intrigued.

“My family is a navy family. I got engaged to Franklin when I was, oh, 17? So almost fourteen years ago. My father was a Navy captain and he and Franklin served together. Joined the navy when they both were 15 years old. My brothers, William and Charles, are too. They serve in the United States Navy. We’re an old Baltimore family, as is his. So, me being the youngest daughter…” She shrugged and sipped her drink. “It only seemed natural. My sister Missy. She was the lucky one. She is constantly traveling Europe. Only God knows where she is now.”

“Sounds interesting,” he said carefully.

“I don’t bite, Mr. Mulder. I can care less what you think of my bore of a husband. There are thirty years between us in age mind you.”

“He is my commanding officer. I did not presume to know anything, Mrs. Buchanan.” The glare again. “I’m sorry. Dana.”

“Well, I appreciate it. This is not much of a birthday, is it? He invites all his friends and officers and I am still left managing my own dinner party!”

Mulder drew out a small rose brooch from his uniform jacket’s pocket. “I know it is not much, and please do not think me presumptuous, Dana but when I was told it was your birthday, I thought it customary to get you something.” He presented the brooch to her. “Forgive me if it is too much.”

Dana took the small jewel steadied rose brooch and sighed appreciatively. “It is gorgeous. Thank you. Your wife must be very lucky.”

“My wife Diana passed two years ago,” he said quietly. “Child birth. Neither she nor the child made it. I am a widower.”

“My condolences.”

He shrugged noncommittally. He gazed outside the window, watching the snow swirl in the streets of Norfolk, Virginia. “So, how do you like it here?”

“I detest it. As I detest this entire horrible war.” She paused and looked at him thoughtfully. “Can you keep a secret?”

He nodded, intrigued by her sudden quietness. She got up and went to the bookshelf and pulled out a much read copy of Moby Dick. “This is one of my favorite books. My father gave it to me when it was published,” she began, “and thus the perfect hiding place.”

“Hiding place?”

She sighed, weighing heavily if she should tell him, ultimately deciding that she could trust him with her secret. “It was no turn of events that I asked you here tonight, Mr. Mulder, granted my husband is very annoying and ruining my birthday. I feel like I can trust you. And I am probably taking a very big gamble with this.” She took another sip of the whiskey and leaned back into the couch. “I detest this war. I detest slavery. It spilt my family, kept me from my parents and my siblings because of my godforsaken marriage. I wanted to go to university and be a doctor but no, I had to be the dutiful daughter.” Dana took a long breath and sighed. “This war has taken everything from me. I want to end it and I will do anything in my power to end it.”

“I understand,” he replied slowly. “I never wanted to serve and I agree with your views on slavery. It is a deplorable practice that needs to be abolished.”

“Why do you serve?”

“I do it because I must. I am bound by duty.”

“Duty,” she said softly. “Duty to do what is right or to your country?”

“What country,” Mulder snorted. “A loose confederacy of states claiming to be a country? The United States is divided and failing. This war will end no time soon and the victory will be covered in blood.”

“Then help me end it,” she said, grabbing his hand quickly. They looked down at their joined hands and quickly broke away as if it burned them. “Help me and the Union. You are a part of the Confederacy’s newest ship. I know the Union is building their own ironclad, the Monitor.”

“How?” Then it dawned on Mulder. “You’re a spy.”

She smiled tightly and did not deny it. “Does it surprise you? Are you going to turn me in and tell my husband?”

He should. He should by duty but something…something stirred in him. The desire to do something greater and be a part of the greater good. There was a long, pregnant pause before he answered. “No.”

Dana fingered the rose brooch slowly and then looked at Mulder. “I see it in your eyes, Mr. Mulder. Help me and the Union. Feed us information about the Virginia.”

“That is no small task, even if I could do it.”

“David brought down Goliath. One lone man made a difference.”

“Why? Why should I help you?”

“You’re like me,” she said after a moment. “You want to do what is right. For the greater good.”

Mulder was quiet for a moment, looking out the window. He still did know why he agreed to it, years after the fact. He let out a breath he had been holding without realizing it. “Okay. I’ll help you.”

She clutched the copy of Moby Dick to her chest gleefully. “You will not regret this, Mulder. I promise you.” She passed him the book. “This is a book code. Learn it. Memorize it.” He took the book and flipped through it. “And read it too if you get the chance, it is a wonderful tale.”

“How does this work?” he asked, wondering if he was already regretting this decision.

“In due course,” she smiled broadly. “I’ll send information in time.”

“Dana! Dana!” her drunken husband called. “Wife, where are you!?!?”

Dana rolled her eyes and held the brooch out to Mulder. “Do you mind? I want to show off the one birthday gift I got this year.”

“Of course, Dana.”

His hand shook slightly as he fixed the brooch to her evening gown. She caught his shaking hands gently, patted them, and gave him a warm smile. “Shall we, Lieutenant Mulder, rejoin my birthday dinner?”

“Of course,” he mumbled numbly. He got up, tucked the book under his right arm, and offered his left arm. “Mrs. Buchanan.”

She took the offered arm. “A gentleman and an officer.” She patted his arm gently. “And for now on, you must refer to me by my maiden name as we will be working together. Not my married name.”

“Which is?”

“Scully. Dana Scully. Now, Lieutenant, shall we?”

He nodded silently and led her back down to the drunken escapades of birthday dinner party below.


End file.
